Local utility Consolidated Edison earlier said investigators checked pipes going from the street to gas meters and apartments and found all of them to be working properly.

The burned children were in critical condition at New York Presbyterian Hospital-Weill Cornell Medical Center.

The mother of the four girls, ages 1 to 5, was also in critical condition, said John Rogers, a hospital spokesman.

The father of the girls, Yemeni immigrant Rassas Alghaithi, told The New York Times after visiting the girls at the hospital: "I can't even recognize which is which." He said the girls were wrapped in bandages, with only their eyes visible.

Alghaithi, 27, said his wife was burned over a large swath of her body. His assessment was bleak. "She is not going to make it," he told the Times for its Monday editions.

The building has been shored up, but residents will not be allowed in until it is deemed safe for occupancy, said Robin Brooks, spokeswoman for the city's Department of Buildings.

More than 5.8 million people voted for Nicholas Maduro at the presidential election in Venezuela. This is more than a quarter of registered voters. Why did those people vote for the man, who, as Western media write, took Venezuela to the brink of collapse?